Here I am at Kingston and St Georges midwifery conference, 2018. Today there will be ten talks and events exploring the concept 'I Have a Voice' and I’ll be reporting on each of them in ‘Notes of Midwifery Voices’.

I talked to third student midwife Hollie Johnstone just before she spoke and she was nervous. But she's here because she believes in what she wrote.

This poem had been created from real words spoken by a woman after her birth. This woman more than approves of Hollie using her language to create art which shows what she went through.

Do No Harm

I am a woman hear me roar,Just like a lion, strong to the core,Intelligent, kind and so much moreThan a mother behind a labour room door

A hospital number hooked up to machines,With midwives and doctors calling me 'she',Never using the name that was given to me,Not once using manners which I thought were free

To you I'm a problem which need to be solved,A mother to be yet so uninvolved,In the care I'm receiving but dare I be bold,When the questions I ask are met with a scold

So I do not ask questions...sad but so true,Because when nobody is listening to you,Except for your partner and he is scared too,There is nothing left as a woman to do

The respect that was given when I was first booked in,Was only for show, now it's shoved in the bin,Along with my birth plan your patience wore thin,You'd think compassion in this place was a sin

Hours pass by and I feel baby near,Forced to be checked, a change in expression is clear,Reading your face I succumb to the fear,A sterile gloved hands of the doctor appear.

Please just explain to me what has gone wrong,Has my body been in labour too long?Is that why the heartbeat I hear is not strong, Amongst jargon being repeated like a song.

All of a sudden I hear an alarm,Any sense of stability I had is gone,I'm scared and in pain as I try to disarm,Those forceps in hand which work 'like a charm'.

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4 Responses

I’m shocked to hear of this woman’s experience of a first birth. I work as a nurse in an Emergency Theatre team and am in obstetrics and on the Delivery floor both in and out of hours. I have never witnessed ( in 17 years at this hospital) the behaviour from health professionals that you describe in this poem. I think the CQC should be alerted!

Great poem , how true, I always used my mums name, treated them with respect at all times and dads too. From a retired midwife of 35 years I saw things changing computers more important and a conveyabelt system coming in. No time after the baby was born to enjoy that special time. A great shame.

This describes my first two births; totally normal, straight forward births I subsequently had my next two (different partner) at home What a difference!
My mother told me of her humiliating experience in the same hospital, years previously, where the pregnant women were made to queue up along the corridor waiting to have a internal check with their knickers down by their ankles to save time! This degrading practice was stopped thank goodness, but totally unbelievable that it happened at all.